Revenue Mobilization is a key instrument for the Government of Sierra Leone in increasing financial independence, achieving middle income status and delivering on the ideals of the New Direction programs in the country. The last two years have witnessed some of the most audacious reforms in the Country’s tax system. The National Revenue Authority (NRA) has consistently registered an increase in tax collection by 1.1 trillion Leones in 2018 and 2019 respectively. 

In 2020, the NRA had projected an estimated 25 billion Leones as an average collection rate per day, but with Covid-19 currently ravaging economies, that number was dropped to 21 and 22 billion Leones as an average collection rate on a daily basis. When asked why the Revenue is still on the high end, the Commissioner General – Dr. Samuel S. Jibao, said: “We have built systems capable of absorbing shocks in the economy and that is why our collection rate was not badly hit.”

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The NRA Boss said there are possibilities of the economy recovering if Covid 19 is eliminated in the coming months. Apart from gaining grounds in revenue generation and mobilisation, the institution has had improvement in its governance, organizational effectiveness and transparency output. Something that disappeared – until the last two years. NRA Governance has improved substantially over the last couple of years. This is fundamentally attributed to the robust appointments in critical areas of its operations which was non-existent.

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The Board is playing a more effective role; and the relationship between the NRA and the Ministry of Finance has improved significantly. “To me this is the start of the turning around of this institution, and our next achievement will be the operations of our reforms”.

COVID-19 Pandemic and the measures on Revenue administration

Sierra Leone reported its first case of COVID- 19 on March 31st 2020. By then the impact of the pandemic was manifesting itself globally with lots of negative effect on the economy and by extension the NRA. Sierra Leone is largely an import driven economy which means a distortion in the global economic stability is expected to have an immense impact on the import flow and consequently on import-related revenues, especially when China and Europe are major trading partners being epicentres of the outbreak.

The proactive Commissioner-General of the NRA – Dr. Samuel S. Jibao, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, activated Tax Deferment procedures – allowing importers of essential commodities to utilise the Customs warehouse suspense regime whereby importers can import goods and pay later; provision of income tax reliefs and concessions in the form of tax deferrals for an initial period of three months to cushion the effects of COVID – 19 on businesses, especially the hospitality and the aviation industries. The income tax relief were also extended to businesses whose products lack market domestically, and whose key customers and partners are currently out of business or closed – both locally and internationally.

As part of celebrating his second year in office, the administrative-minded NRA Boss decided to visit some of the most remote border crossing points in the North of Sierra Leone. Other high ranking NRA officials over the weekend visited Dogoloya- a border crossing point in Kabala, Sanya – a little over a Hundred miles from the Northern town of Makeni, Kono, Gbalamuya, Port loko and Lungi international airport.

The NRA Boss said he is dedicating this second appointment anniversary to touching Base with NRA Staff across the Country – no matter where the staff is – “as long as there is a NRA post, I will visit, he said”. The delegation included the Customs Commissioner – Abu Kanneh, Domestic Tax Commissioner- Ibrahim Sorie Kamara, Assistant Commissioner Border Controls and Management – Richard H. Senesie and other NRA Officials.

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Dr. Samuel S Jibao is the first Commissioner General to have all official border crossing points in Sierra Leone, says Assistant Commissioner Border Controls and Management – Richard H Senesie. The Commissioner of Customs – Abu Kanneh,  encouraged his staff at various customs post to be professional as they work for the institution and by extension – Sierra Leone. The Commissioner General is set to do similar trips in the future.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry